Rusty Floor Pan Fix....

[surfmon]

Was gonna post this in picture showcase, but apparentely I'm not allowed for one reason or another, so it will go here instead

Was under my XJ last week preparing to do some long overdo maintenance when I noticed a small section of rust under the driver seat.

It wasn't horrible lookin, but I pulled up the carpet to inspect further.

The entire floor pan is shit. I began tappin it with a hammer and it started falling apart. Apparentely salt water is BAD for metal.
Who knew??

this is how it looked after a few blow with the hammer

most of it cut out and prepping for the new metal

transfer case access.........

got the new pan tacked in last night but forgot to take a picture

more to come

t

 

[Blaine B.]

Yea, wonderful rust isn't it?

Glad you're getting it fixed.

 

[Pleiner87]

I still don't have a weilder, but my passenger front looks even worse, I got some sheet metal, worked with it for a while, used some sheet metal screws, and it's still junk. are you fabing new pans or is there pre-fabed pans out there... I havent looked.

 

[Blaine B.]

There are pans you can buy.

It's easier to cut and weld or sheetmetal screw.

All we did was use some tar to seal and then sheet metal and self tappers when we fixed my floor.

Passenger was about the same, driver's side was better.

 

[Pleiner87]

yep, high heat tar, banged up sheet metal, self tap screws, and alot of spray on undercoating... and the rust has spread further... i need to get a welder...

 

[outlander]

I bet you won't be putting carpet back in now will ya
I just got through patching a few spots on my 89.I used sheet metal screws and a strong assed epoxy called pc-7.

 

[Pleiner87]

I was thinking of fiberglassing over the metal... but i grew lazy...

 

[surfmon]

making my own pan

welding it in and coating the shit out of it


and no, no carpet EVER again

 

[aiinny]

Hey! Now I know what my floor will look like.
My wife picked up a 95xj for me for $500. I drove it home and was wondering why the floor had these two low spots on each side of the carpet, not having had a Jeep before. So its parked in the garrage and i\I looked under it and WOW its looks like hell. The padding is all hanging out, all the way to the rear. How much in time am I looking at to clean . fit and fix ?Any idea?

 

[dizzymac]

Surfmom....great job cleaning up the rust...I would go a little further though...you want to make sure that you have totally good sheet metal to attach your repair to.
Get yourself some Zero Rust or POR15, I prefer ZR, no isocyanates,won't kill ya' as quick, coat the old metal as well as the new, if you welding it in, do the welds first then the coating. When you are done I would cover the whole thing with some sort of bedliner coating (Herculiner, What-A-Liner etc) I find the $8 a can stuff at Wally World just does not get hard enough.
Thats the quick version of repairing the floor pan, my version would take a page-and-half....lol
Good luck with your repair.

 

[Ecomike]

I recently discovered the first few spots, signs of rust and a few holes in my 85 and 87 XJ's. One hole was a good 5" x 4".

I took a different approach, one I have used over the last 15 years with great success. I started on the exterior side, hammered the loose stuff out, wire brushed the loose rust off, then coated the remaining rust with a space age rust neutralizing polymer primer. I have used two different brands of what is basically the same stuff, one is Kleen-Strip Rust Converter, the other is Permatex Rust Converter (IIRC), they are both an opaque tan color that turns red rust black, and leaves a polymer primer top coat over the converted black iron oxide primer. I first used it in the 1980's, and went for 10 more years with out any rust returning, or rust breakthrough on places I had treated. The nice part is you do not clean it to bare metal, you use the hard surface rust to react with the conversion primer polymer to form a hard, very corrosion resistant polymer primer.

Then I used 25 year outdoor residential window, siliconized acrylic latex caulk to fill and seal the small holes. I have also used Great Stuff brand urethane foam caulk for bigger holes, followed by topping off the foam with the siliconized acrylic latex caulk. Fiberglass can also be used for big holes, but I prefer to start with galvanized wire mesh, riveted in place to any remaining good metal using fender washers to hold the rivets, for the fiberglass resin, but fiberglass cloth works too. Then on the under belly I used a black rubberized spray can undercoating, and on the visible body side I used regular car paint. I have used this method on old rusting vehicles since about 1984 with great success, like 10 years with no further signs of rust!

I recently used the Permatex version on a rusting 9000 gallon used gasoline storage tank that I pulled out of service and did want to risk sandblasting (no sparks). Worked great, I converted the tank into a waste water storage vessel.

Beats welding and sanblasting in my book!